A sedan-type passenger vehicle typically includes a trunk disposed at the rear of the vehicle in order to accommodate articles, and isolated from a space in which occupants are located, and the trunk is typically configured to be opened and closed by opening a trunk lid.
An SUV, an MPV, or the like, in which a space for accommodating articles and a space for accommodating the occupants are not separated from each other, has an opening formed at the rear of the interior of a vehicle body so as to easily accommodate articles, and a tail gate is mounted to open and close the opening that is an entrance for an accommodating space.
That is, there is a difference in size and shape between the trunk lid and the tail gate, but the trunk lid and the tail gate serve as a door, which is rotatably mounted to the vehicle body and opens and closes the accommodating space in the vehicle, and commonly have a locking device so as to be prevented from being opened when the vehicle travels or when the vehicle is parked.
The locking device includes a striker which has a loop shape and is fixedly mounted to the vehicle body, and a latch which is mounted at an end of the tail gate or the trunk lid, and coupled to the striker so as to maintain a locked state when the tail gate or the trunk lid is closed.
Referring to FIG. 1, the latch has a structure in which a catch 2 is rotatably mounted to a housing 1 having an opening groove 1A that is formed so that a striker may enter the opening groove 1A. The catch 2 maintains an open position, at which the striker may enter the locking groove 2A, by a spring, and after the striker enters the opening groove 1A, the catch 2 rotates to a locking position at which the striker is restricted from exiting. Further, when the catch 2 rotates to the locked position, a pole 3 having a protruding portion is fitted into the locking groove 2A, thereby restricting the rotation of the catch 2.
The prior art discloses a cinching latch structure for a tail gate, which provides a half locked state that closes the tail gate that is not locked. In the cinching latch structure, in order to implement two locked states, a fully locked state and a half locked state, a catch 2 has a structure in which a second locking groove 2B into which a pole 3 is fitted in the half locked state is additionally formed in addition to a locking groove 2A into which the pole 3 is fitted in the fully locked state.
However, in the cinching latch structure, there is a problem in that the unlocked state may be inadvertently changed to the half locked state due to the weight of the tail gate, which may cause a user to sense that the tail gate is caught when the tail gate is opened and closed.
That is, when the pole 3 is rotated by an operation of a motor in the fully locked state in which the striker is completely fastened, the catch 2, which has been fixed by the pole 3, is rotated to the unlocked state by elastic force of the spring while passing through the half locked state (for reference, the catch is in the half locked state when the catch rotates 30 degrees, and the catch is in the unlocked state when the catch rotates 60 degrees).
However, there may be a problem in that when the half locked state is changed into the unlocked state, the catch sags due to a weight of the tail gate (as the catch is pressed by the striker), and then returns to the half locked state, and this problem causes the user to sense that the tail gate is caught and/or sense heterogeneity when the tail gate is opened.